Trump won’t take sides on Israel and the Palestinians

Donald Trump at a campaign rally at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Sept. 14, 2015. (Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Donald Trump said he would remain neutral when it comes to Israel and the Palestinians, but cited Palestinian incitement as a factor in making the conflict intractable.

Trump, the front-runner in the race for the Republican presidential nod, was asked at a town hall meeting in Charleston, South Carolina, ahead of Saturday’s primary whether he would tackle Israeli-Palestinian peace.

He said he would give it “one hell of a shot,” although “it’s probably the toughest agreement of any kind to make.”

At the event hosted by MSNBC, Trump said the reason for the conflict’s intractability was the mutual hatred, although he appeared to say this was a bigger problem on the Palestinian side.

“You know, you have both sides, really, but one side in particular growing up learning that these are the worst people, these people are the worst people, etc. etc.,” he said. “I was with a very prominent Israeli the other day, he says it’s impossible because the other side has been trained from the time they’re children to hate Jewish people.”

Moderator Joe Scarborough pressed Trump to name who he believed was at fault, but the real estate magnate and reality TV star declined.

“If I win, I don’t want to be in a position where I’m saying to you, and the other side now says, ‘We don’t want Trump involved, we don’t want,’ let me sort of be a neutral guy,” Trump said. “I don’t want to say whose fault is it, I don’t think it helps.”

CNN simultaneously hosted town halls in the state with three Trump rivals for the Republican candidacy — Dr. Ben Carson, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. It will host Trump, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich on Thursday night.

In his town hall, Cruz reiterated his pledges to cancel the Iran nuclear deal reached last year between Iran and six major powers, and to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

“Ripping to shred the Iranian nuclear deal, and moving the American embassy to Jerusalem,” Cruz said, outlining what would be among his first acts as president. “Both of those are within the power of the president, but they’re also powerfully symbolic. You know, moving the embassy to Israel tells Israel, it tells all of our allies, it tells our enemies, America is back.”